There isn't much I'd like more than to see Star Citizen implement FPS planetary combat but, as others have said, it strikes me as an incredibly ambitious goal. I appreciate that the CryEngine is built around FPS combat but it will still require a lot in terms of art assets, level design and gameplay design. How are they going to ensure there will be enough other players on the planet to make it interesting? I just don't want it to distract from the core mechanics.

I really hope they nail the gameplay in this and there is certainly a lot of potential given the amount of thought being put into it and the community participation. This is the game I've been waiting for since playing the original Tie Fighter nearly twenty years ago and Starlancer (another Chris Roberts' game) over thirteen years ago.

I'm all for money going to charity but I'm not going to support a business as unethical as EA. I mean, I wouldn't support Halliburton or Monsanto even if all the money was going to charity. At the end of the day this is money that EA can write-off against tax, that it can use to inflate its stats and extra users for its Origin service, all of which provide a tangible benefit to the company. No thanks.

Jivaro wrote on Aug 30, 2013, 14:52:It's an alpha, a test, and it came with a shit ton of disclaimers saying as much. If you find a bug, report it in the appropriate section of the forums...that is the point of the release.

Wildone wrote on Aug 30, 2013, 15:02:omg how many times & disclaimers do they have to make and people STILL bitch about it...

Parias wrote on Aug 30, 2013, 15:06:You completely missed the point of this release.

I'm well aware of all the disclaimers but my point still stands. We're talking about established middleware - CryEngine 3 - and a release consisting of a single room. If ladders aren't functioning properly then they shouldn't have been included.

The reality is that they can put out as many disclaimers as they want but their work is inevitably going to be judged by it. As I said, I'm still very much looking forward to this game (that much is obvious as I've paid to support it) - my point is just that this was rushed out and there wasn't any need for it to be. There is nothing unreasonable about pointing out the issues I encountered.

As much as I'm looking forward to this game I think they rushed this module out. Approaching the ladder caused all the keyboard controls to go funky and when I eventually climbed the second ladder I started floating around and could move through walls. That and performance is terrible.

Still, at least it proves that work is actually being done on the game and it's not all fancy videos.

MattyC wrote on Aug 15, 2013, 09:47:Sounds like this offers more than 4. 4 really looked like an extremely minor set of changes from 3.

The changes weren't radical but were substantial enough to warrant a sequel. In fact I found myself playing Tropico 4 a lot more than the previous version - it was much better rounded.

I'm looking forward to Tropico 5. I've always been a fan of God-games and refuse to buy Sim City because of EA's anti-consumer policies, so there isn't really a huge amount in the way of competition. This is definitely a developer worth supporting.

I just hope they release the wireless X1 controller promptly, as one of my wireless X360 controllers has a failed D-pad and I'd like to upgrade as soon as is practical. As for this announcement, it's a lot of bullshit but at least it is confirmed that the X1 controller will be available for PC.

jacobvandy wrote on Aug 6, 2013, 21:25:If you're hired by Valve, you ARE Valve, and people within Valve work on whatever they damn well please, so it makes no difference.

There's quite a difference between being a Valve employee starting a new gaming project from scratch and being part of an outside developer that is bought up by Valve. You don't immediately acquire the culture of another company when the ownership changes, it takes time. It's fair to say that Valve does very little from its core staff, relying mostly on acquired IP and projects. That's not to say they aren't very good, as there is certainly a skill to knowing the right projects to take on, but it's different to Valve creating games of its own.

Which brings us to the main issue, which is that Valve simply doesn't release many projects of its own. Valve was famous for its Half-Life series yet that is now nowhere to be seen, which is disappointing given its impact upon the gaming industry.

Hopefully it isn't a trainwreck like F1 2012, which I had to skip because it a) didn't support my resolution (2560x1600), and b) didn't support SLI. That despite the fact that F1 2011 worked flawlessly.

TheEmissary wrote on Jul 21, 2013, 13:47:A car and other physical products have wear and tear from use a digital product doesn't have this problem. The only thing that really affects a digital product is market pressure. A used/resold digital product is going to be identical to the new version. Which is why this isn't as cut and dry. Reselling digital games has the potential to eat the developers/publishers lunch.

But the reality is that older games have a considerably lower value because they date quickly. You don't see Valve selling the original Half-Life or even Left 4 Dead 2 for £30 because it couldn't get away with it. And publishers will be able to use DLC and other techniques to prevent reselling from eating into their profit margins, plus they'll receive a percentage of every sale.

Nate wrote on Jul 21, 2013, 12:48:Is there any online digital seller that's allows resale? Doubt it. Very good reasons why it doesn't make sense. Allowing resale adds extra work for Steam for no reward. And then the fact that those downloaded games can be resold repeatedly forever.

Have you seen how trading card sales work? The owner sets the price they want to receive and then the amount that goes to Valve and the developer is added on to create the final price. Everybody wins.

Personally I am completely in favour of this. The EU has always been very strong when it comes to protecting consumer rights and this is just another example of that. Valve will find a way to balance the needs to publishers, gamers and itself. Digital content should be resellable. Just because it currently isn't allowed doesn't mean it shouldn't be allowed.

The trailer looks good but there's no way that was rendered in real time on current gen consoles. Rockstar has a history of putting out pre-release media that is of much better quality than the final game. Plus it remains to be seen how well optimised the engine is, especially after the GTA4 fiasco.

It's all very well looking good in a 720p YouTube video but it really comes down to how it actually plays. The PC version hasn't even been announced and will like by the best part of a year down the line, at which point we'll already have next-gen titles like Watch_Dogs and possibly Mafia 3. I want to be excited for GTA5 but I've been burned by Rockstar too many times.

Leper wrote on Jul 8, 2013, 20:55:Let me just add that the L.A. Noire port was very well done (they even added DirectX 11 support). Hopefully they will maintain that level of quality if this is ever ported.

The LA Noire port was shit. The graphics were terrible, it was limited to 30fps (unacceptable), it was bundled with shitware and it arrived significantly after the console versions. Now Mafia II, that was a good port.

I really don't have any interest in GTA5. No PC version has been announced, it's been designed as a current gen title (which means it won't scale upwards) and Rockstar has a history of fucking over PC gamers. GTAIV was a train wreck, MP3 was plagued with unnecessary cutscenes pre-rendered at sub-720p quality (at first I thought the game was broken), LA Noire was capped to 30fps, RDR was never released, etc. Rockstar is too busy whoring itself out to Microsoft and Sony to worry about things like integrity or competence.

I've never had much respect for Engadget and articles like this only reinforce my position. Double Fine was never going to meet the expectations of every backer, especially not when a) backers were given no idea about what the game was going to be, and b) it was massively overfunded and everybody's expectations changed. Personally I backed the project and I was more than happy to do so. The announcement of the delay and changes doesn't surprise me and I don't feel let down. There have been plenty of videos documenting the process and I still have confidence in the team.

Engadget is just a gaming tabloid that wants to kick up a fuss where none is warranted. Kickstarter goes out of its way to explain that you are not guaranteed ANYTHING and projects can fail entirely. I invested knowing I might get nothing but in the hope that a) it would change the gaming industry, and b) that I'd get a good game out of it given the pedigree of the people involved. The industry HAS been changed (the fact that we're getting Star Citizen is proof of that!) and the game looks to be developing nicely and to a much higher standard than was claimed.

The quality of the comments on Engadget is depressing but not exactly surprising given the immature nature of the site. The fact that people on Blues aren't freaking out is proof that Engadget is way off base here, as Blues Troopers love to throw their toys out their pram (myself included ).

Any true gamer should be happy with what Double Fine is doing. Anyone who isn't was investing for the wrong reasons.

Yeah, that's what I'm using here. It's annoying that nVidia has refused to release a standalone driver (even in beta form) for Windows 8.1, especially as the regular drivers are incompatible. You can download them via Windows Update but that doesn't include the nVidia Control Panel, meaning you can't enable SLI (amongst other things).

@ASeven - I don't see why you like that reply, as it completely misses the point. NPD's software report is dependent upon only the physical sales in the US. That means not only does it ignore Europe (which surpassed the US in video game sales more than five years ago) but also digital distribution, which makes up a significant portion of the market (if not the majority). As for the hardware numbers, of course they'll be reported as they're still accurate (at least a lot more so than the software numbers).

Software sales haven't declined by 44% since 2000 and the fact that NPD suggests that's the case demonstrates how hopelessly inaccurate it is.

For what it's worth I really enjoyed the old NASCAR games back in the day, despite the fact I'm a Brit and have zero interest in the sport itself. However, modern racer franchises like F1, DiRT and GRID have redefined the genre and the videos on the website for this look terrible - it's clearly a budget game. It's a shame, as with a AAA budget and a decent developer I'm sure they could make an awesome game.

I've funded several games through KS but this has to be the one I'm most looking forward to. There has been a huge number of progress updates and it's by far the most professional looking, as well as being a genre close to my heart. Starlancer was one of my favourite space sim (up there with Tie Fighter) and this has the potential to surpass it. Another plus is the support for the Oculus Rift.

Of all the KS projects this has to be the most credible and the most ambitious.